Badhara / Ching-Chai
Gmelina philippensis
Also known as Hedgehog, Parrot's Beak
- Habit
- Shrub
- Found in India
- West Bengal, Kerala, Maharashtra & more
- Flowering
- January-June
How to identify Badhara
Identify Badhara by combining habit, leaf characters, flower or fruit details, location, and its family pattern. Do not rely on one feature alone.
- Look for a shrub habit.
- Check the distinctive field mark: Spiny branches, showy bracted flower spikes.
- Confirm flower colour: Yellow.
- In season, compare flowering and fruiting time: January-June.
- In India, compare location records such as West Bengal, Kerala, Maharashtra, Gujarat and nearby regions.
- Confirm it sits within the Verbenaceae family pattern, then compare close relatives before deciding it is Badhara.
Plant Details
- Scientific name
- Gmelina philippensis
- Genus
- Gmelina
- Family
- Verbenaceae
- Habit
- Shrub
- Habitat
- Grown as garden plant, also runs wild
- Habitat type
- Cultivated
- Native to
- Southeast Asia
- Distribution
- Introduced
- Found in India
- West Bengal, Kerala, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand
- Flowering & fruiting
- January-June
- Conservation status
- Not Evaluated (NE)
Leaf characters
- Arrangement
- Opposite
Typical of the Verbenaceae family — a field-mark hint, not measured for this exact species.
Flower & fruit characters
- Flower colour
- Yellowrecorded
Typical of the family
- Flower symmetry
- Zygomorphic (bilaterally symmetrical)
- Inflorescence
- Cyme
- Fruit
- Drupe
Characters marked “recorded” are for Badhara itself; the rest are typical of the Verbenaceae family — flowering plants only.
Local Names
- Hindi
- बधारा Badhara
- Bengali
- বধারা Badhara
- Malayalam
- ജിമെലീന ഫിലിപ്പെൻസിസ്
About Badhara
Ching-chai (Gmelina philippensis) belongs to the Verbenaceae family, where it grows as a shrub. In India it has been recorded in West Bengal, Kerala, Maharashtra and 5 other states. It is grown as garden plant, also runs wild. Flowering and fruiting run from January to June.
Verbenaceae
Verbena/Teak family
Badhara belongs to the Verbenaceae family.
The illustration represents the family — not necessarily this exact species.
Explore the Verbenaceae familySnap it. Know it.
Point your camera at Badhara or any plant and SASYA identifies it instantly — on-device, offline, and private.
Common plant problems
If you are starting from symptoms instead of a diagnosis, use the plant disease symptom checker to narrow the cause before treating.
All plant problem & care guides